The first obvious problem with secondhand ebooks is that the secondhand file is exactly the same as the brand new file. Unlike with a physical book, there’s no risk that your copy might have crayon scribbles in the middle or be missing the final, crucial page. Because ebooks don’t deteriorate, there is no incentive for the buyer to seek out a new ebook, and especially not when they will likely be able get the secondhand ebook at a discount.

Zombie Walk 2012, by By Grmisiti. Any similarity to corporations living or dead is entirely coincidental.

This means that secondhand ebooks would be very likely to cannibalise sales of new ebooks, and probably to a greater extent than piracy because it will be legal, easy and entirely without emotional repercussion.

When someone illegally copies a book, they know that they haven’t paid for it. For a key subset of those people, that will set up an emotional imbalance — which might be akin to the feeling of guilt — with the book, and maybe the author, which will encourage them to buy the book, or another from the same author, later down the line. Reciprocation and fairness are built in to the human psyche at quite a fundamental level, even if they aren’t expressed equally in everybody.

But when a reader buys a secondhand ebook, they have paid for it, so there is no emotional imbalance. And although there has been an equitable transaction, the author and original publisher get nothing from it. More to the point, the reader feels no need to either buy the same book again from the original publisher, nor to buy something different from that author to ‘repay’ them for the earlier transgression, because there was no transgression. So there’s absolutely no reason why secondhand ebooks won’t eat into the sales of new ebooks.

On the other hand, when we argue that when we buy an ebook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble we should be actually buying ownership of the file, not just licensing access to it, we are arguing in favour of a secondhand ebook market, whether we realise it or not. Why should I not be able to resell the ebooks I buy? Resale is a fundamental right of ownership of physical products, so why should it be different with digital products?

If I, as a reader, can sell on the ebooks I’ve bought, even if at a slight loss, might I not be more likely to buy even more? I will confess, the reason my Nook isn’t completely jammed to the rafters is that the ebooks I would buy are often priced too high. From this point of view, the health and viability of a secondhand ebook market would be a (another) massive signal to the publishing industry that they are pricing their digital products way too high.

As almost completely unknown author, my problem is obscurity not piracy, and if piracy isn’t my problem then neither is the secondhand book market. If there is secondhand demand for my ebooks, then that means there’s firsthand demand too, demand that I need to find a way to satisfy.

My first tactic to deal with the secondhand market thus has to be to work on building a community of loyal fans who would not only never dream of buying secondhand, but who will also talk their friends into buying direct from me too. With a solid fanbase, and merchandise beyond books, I can worry less about losses to any secondhand buyers.

As a self-publisher, though, the idea of Amazon running a secondhand ebook market fills me with the fear. Of course the devil is in the detail: If Amazon allow the resale of any digital file, then we are all royally screwed. It is trivially easy to whip the DRM off most ebooks, so there’s absolutely no reason why someone wouldn’t buy a book, strip the DRM out, and then just keep on reselling that same copy over and over. If Amazon restrict resale to files bought from within their system — which is a decent majority of ebooks — then I am equally as screwed: There’s no way anyone with half a wit wouldn’t keep a copy of the ebook they resell, and Amazon’s secondhand books could easily wind up with more visibility and more attractive prices than my own.

But at least, as a self-publisher with sales at a nano scale, I have the option of withdrawing completely from Amazon without any real loss of income. I’m earning so little from them since their change in algorithm buried my novella that pulling out of Amazon at the moment is not only possible, it’s positively attractive. Why not just sell direct instead?

But if I were a traditional publisher, right about now would be the point at which I’d start seriously pooping my pants. Without the choice of withdrawing from Amazon, and with radical price drops the only way of competing with a secondhand market, ebooks could suddenly become a liability. And if, as is true for some titles, your ebook sales make up half of your total sales, slashing prices whilst also having your sales cannibalised by secondhand sellers could be a painful and possibly fatal experience.

There is a chance, of course, that Amazon cock this up so spectacularly that self-publishers and publisher leave in droves and the whole enterprise collapses. But that is not an outcome I would even consider depending upon. Amazon are ruthless, not stupid.

If I were a traditional publisher, I would be running — not walking — to set up a direct sales platform and start doing some serious community building. If you don’t have the talent on staff already, hire it in. Social media and community platforms take time to build, and if you don’t start taking action now to mitigate the potential damage done to your business model by a secondhand ebook market, well, tomorrow will be too late.